| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 15, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 15, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1625222 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Mike Ferrara
mferrara@nsf.gov (703)292-2635 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2016 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $156,564.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $156,564.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
221 N GRAND BLVD SAINT LOUIS MO US 63103-2006 (314)977-3925 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
221 N Grand Blvd St. Louis MO US 63103-2006 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | IUSE |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
In conjunction with the Committee on Curriculum Renewal Across the First Two Years (CRAFTY) of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), a consortium of eleven institutions will collaborate to revise and improve the curriculum for lower division undergraduate mathematics courses. A key element of these innovations will be interdisciplinary partnerships, with partner disciplines directly involved in decisions about curricular needs. Collectively, the consortium will impact over 52,000 undergraduate students and 200 college faculty from a wide array of disciplines through implementing major recommendations from the MAA Curriculum Foundations (CF) Project and changing the undergraduate mathematics curriculum in ways that support improved STEM learning for all students while building the STEM workforce of tomorrow. The project will also foster a network of cross-disciplinary faculty in order to promote community and institutional transformation through shared experiences and ideas for successfully creating functional interdisciplinary partnerships within and across institutions. Materials and ideas generated by the curricular changes and the interdisciplinary collaborative process will be widely disseminated through workshops at national conferences, two journal special issues, extensive publications, and open webinars.
This project will be based on research about the needs of partner disciplines, as identified in a series of 22 workshops organized by CRAFTY. At each of the eleven participating institutions in the project, mathematics and partner discipline faculty will collaborate to better understand the CF recommendations, determine how these recommendations can be used to effectively improve the content of affected courses, introduce modifications in pilot sections, work with a central evaluation team to measure the effectiveness of new approaches (especially as it pertains to students from underrepresented groups), offer workshops and support for instructors using these new curricula (locally, regionally, and nationally), and scale-up these new offerings within the consortium and through dissemination to additional campuses. The central evaluation will yield extensive, consistently-collected data to accurately determine the effects of innovative partnerships and resulting curricular changes. Additionally, the project will contribute significantly to the Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) knowledge-base and generate a greater understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of mathematics within the broader undergraduate curriculum.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
All work of the project has been completed, and the budget commitments for the institution are fullfilled. The Institution will be drawing down the final charges from NSF prior to the December 31, 2022 deadline and closing the project.
The National Consortium for Synergistic Undergraduate Mathematics via Multi-institutional Interdisciplinary Teaching Partnerships (SUMMIT-P) has been working together since 2016 to revise and improve the lower division undergraduate mathematics curriculum. Guided by recommendations from the Mathematical Association of America?s Curriculum Foundations Project (a series of 22 disciplinary workshops to better understand the mathematical needs of students majoring in partner disciplines), the key element of SUMMIT-P is interdisciplinary faculty partnerships. SUMMIT-P partner discipline colleagues are directly involved in decisions and ongoing conversations about curricular needs and related application content. The nine original implementation sites, together with three new institutions added in 2019, have established a national interdisciplinary faculty network?via online discussions and learning communities?in order to promote changes in faculty culture.
Since its inception, SUMMIT-P?s consortium model has been instrumental in ensuring the consistency and sustainability of the project as it gains national prominence. Institutional teams have been further strengthened by site visits, professional development, and interactions among institutions with common areas of focus. The project evaluation includes shared metrics and is yielding extensive common data across the SUMMIT-P institutions, leading to more accurate information about the effects of innovative partnerships and resulting curricular change. Outcomes indicate that students are seeing the connections between mathematics and partner disciplines, resulting in significant changes in attitude about the importance of various components within the undergraduate curriculum. Faculty are taking more ownership of developing course materials that assist with these student transfers of information. Additionally, the project is generating a greater understanding among faculty of the interdisciplinary nature of mathematics.
The SUMMIT-P theory of change is based on development of new ideas within and across institutional teams. This development is supported and made more efficient through national-level coordination that, for example, allows institutions to more readily share ideas. Once developed locally, changes will only be sustained if they are institutionalized through structural and cultural changes. The SUMMIT-P theory of change is further detailed in the SUMMIT-P model that has developed through the consortium?s collective work. Using teams at the consortium and institution levels, implementation sites progress through the model components at various speeds, depending upon their local project and other institutional factors. Numerous activities adapted to the specific contexts lead to the integration of content across courses, forming a seamless STEM curriculum. These include faculty learning communities (FLCs), wish lists from partner discipline colleagues, and ?fishbowl style? activities in which an outer-circle group carefully observes active discussion by an inner circle of colleagues. FLCs, site visits, and professional development serve as the bridge between the consortium and the institutions while facilitating the showcasing of success and sharing best practices.
Last Modified: 12/30/2022
Modified by: Michael May
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